Items for sale may be pre-ordered by a dealer in various configurations based on a forecast of item demand, i.e., based on the number of items of a particular configuration that the dealer thinks it can sell. Once received, pre-ordered items are included in dealer inventory, and may be made available for sale. For many, if not most, manufactured items, a large percentage of retail sales are delivered from available dealer inventory. Therefore, sales rates for items at a dealer are often largely determined based on the configuration of items that the dealer has in inventory.
It is possible that an item may be produced in only one configuration. Accordingly, a forecast of demand would include only the number of units to order. However, many items are produced in multiple configurations of features. In such cases, items may be pre-ordered by a dealer based on a forecast of item demand, where forecasted item demand may be determined from rates at which items having a similar feature or features have recently sold. However, often an item may be ordered with many different combinations of features. This variety in configuration complicates forecasting of item demand because sold items may have configurations including many different features, making it difficult to determine what features contributed to past sales and therefore should be ordered, and in what combination. Variety in configurations for an item also adds difficulties to the parts supply chain for the item, because different configurations may require different materials for manufacture of the items.